The Tribunals Service was created in response to Sir Andrew Leggatt's review of the UK tribunal system, entitled Tribunals for Users: One System, One Service, published in August 2001.[1] Leggatt criticised the then existing system for administrating many tribunals, in particular he observed that some tribunals were not independent of the administrative bodies over which they were supposed to exert control; and that there was no uniformity of administration between the many tribunals.

The Leggatt report was followed by a white paper in July 2004, entitled Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals, which, amongst other recommendations, proposed bringing together a number of tribunals under the administrative of a newly created agency.[2]